Thursday, December 14, 2006

Pork turns rancid

The Arkanass Supreme Court ruled today that The Great Pork Grab of 2005, orchestrated by The Brotherhood Inc., was essentially unconstitutional, at least when it came to taking state surpluses to do $400,000 worth of street work in Sen. Bob Johnson's home of Bigelow. "Special and local legislation," the court said, in reverising a lower court and vindicating former Rep. Mike Wilson of Jacksonville who pursued the action out of outrage over the legislature's pork barreling.

There was no rational reason to single out Bigelow for infrastructure help, the court concluded. Some claims over other grants were dismissed for procedural reasons, but Wilson may refile them.

Do you think this might, just might, slow the greedy hogs down in 2007?

More by Max Brantley

Democratic Rep. MIchael John Gray has issued a statement on the report that former Democratic legislator Hank Wilkins, soon to resign as Jefferson County judge, had told FBI he'd taken bribes from a lobbyist now under indictment. Wilkins has not been charged. It's regrettably a defense of some other indefensible practices.

The Monday open line, plus a video roundup of news and comment.

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We take a visit to the weekly hot check court in Sherwood District Court, the subject of a recent civil rights lawsuit filed by ACLU Arkansas and others, who say the system there results in a modern-day debtor's prison

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has denied a new permit for the C&H Hog Farms' concentrated animal feeding operation near Mount Judea (Newton County). This is a big and somewhat surprising victory for critics who have viewed C&H's large-scale pig farm and the pig waste it generates as an existential threat to the Buffalo National River.

A petition drive has begun to encourage a demand that Sen. Jason Rapert pay for the legal fees in defending his Ten Commandments monument proposed for the state Capitol grounds. It's more work by the Satanic Temple, which has fought church-state entanglement around the country.

by Max Brantley

Aug 28, 2016

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A federal prosecutor in Missouri said Friday that a former legislator, Henry Wilkins IV of Pine Bluff, had said he'd received $100,000 in bribes as a state legislator from indicted former lobbyist Rusty Cranford. He was not alone on an illicit dole.

On Wednesday, both chambers of the Arkansas legislature approved identical versions of a bill to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, the powerful health care companies at the center of a dispute over cuts in reimbursements paid to pharmacists.

A state senator's business relationship with a company she helped receive state money.

Democratic Rep. MIchael John Gray has issued a statement on the report that former Democratic legislator Hank Wilkins, soon to resign as Jefferson County judge, had told FBI he'd taken bribes from a lobbyist now under indictment. Wilkins has not been charged. It's regrettably a defense of some other indefensible practices.